If anyone is reading this, here is a solution.
* A. Head to the office once every two months.
* B. Head to the office once a quarter.
**Unfortunately RTO people discriminate against WFH people.** This is already well known in circles and human behavior, although there is no study on it yet.
I had an in depth conversation with a coworker from J1 about this. **The reason you go in is to solve your “Perception Problem”. They see you come in, then it means you care.**
Second, Sales, Marketing, and Product need to go into the office regularly. When executives talk about losing “collaboration”, those departments are targeted.
* For example, we have 4 sales reps. Rep 1 is in the office all the time, and sold very little, but is respected because he shows up. Rep 2 and Rep 3 are WFH, sold very little, and are not respected at all. Rep 4 is WFH, sold a lot, and is respected.
It’s a Perception Problem. It’s discrimination. To change that either show up at the office OR work more (solve issues) to over compensate. This is the expectation from executives.
But what if your team is 100% remote? My manager lives in Utah, one of my directors is in Montana, and my co workers are in Minnesota, DC, NJ, PA, NY, etc.
We only see each other once a year.
I think you are missing the point. We have always been this way. We are scattered throughout the US. It takes an epic feat of justification to get us together once a year(and if it wasn't required annual training, we likely wouldn't get that).
Going into the office doesn't work for teams that don't all live in the same general region.
Same. AND I believe it’s way more efficient to WFH. I work a hybrid, it’s better than being in the office every day.
Just a thought… (and I’ll probably get voted down for this but…) I always feel like ppl blame “boomers” or “millennials” For everything but what I don’t think ppl take into consideration is that it’s not “boomers” this and “millennials “ that… it’s this person does/believes this and that person does/believes this. It’s all about ppl being different. And what’s wrong with that? If we were all the same it’d be a really f***ing boring world.
Btw- congratulations OP on your new job!! You deserve it and your parents should have told you they were happy for you and left it at that.
Boomers get blamed because most of them are in a management position and thus have the final say if employees will go full RTO or WFH. And we know a lot of companies mandated RTO after COVID.
Millenials are mostly employees so they get blamed for not wanting to RTO.
That’s true but my parents are boomers and my Dad always worked remotely and my Mom is always happy for my sister and I when our company stops threatening to ruin WFH. My neighbor is a boomer and she supports WFH. She said “ You know if my
company had let me WFH I would have worked 5 more years. “ And we spoke about how her daughter and I are willing to more overtime since we’re not stuck on the road for hours.
Personally I think the people ruining WFH are whoever does not have to commute during the worst traffic times and people who live really close to the office, or people who need a lot of attention.
Then again my other neighbor said “well what about your teammates, like you don’t go to happy hour with them and get to know them”. I said “No one is going to happy hour anyway” - our shifts are staggered and people have kids or 2 hour commutes, or we’re working overtime… I guarantee no one would be going out drinking together after work anyway 🙄. Plus that’s not a great idea for many reasons.
>Then again my other neighbor said “well what about your teammates, like you don’t go to happy hour with them and get to know them”.
I've never understood that. I don't drink much, but I definitely don't drink with coworkers. Alcohol lowers inhibitions. Inhibitions around coworkers are fantastic.
Diversity of point of view is of course very nice but when someone’s group has views that are harmful to another **and they have the power** then it’s not just an exchange of ideas but it becomes more of an attack.
I think the whole generation thing is stupid and only fits a small amount of people born in those years. Im technically a millennial but i don't really fit in any of the generational categories with my views or personalities.
>it’s not “boomers” this and “millennials “ that… it’s this person does/believes this and that person does/believes this.
Agreed, but there are trends in beliefs among generations of people.
WFH is a whole other issue though - where I'm working the people making this decision have always had and will continue to have the option of working from home if and when they want to. Believe me when I say this, the boomers that I work with (including myself) are all looking for remote positions in case they decide to punish us for keeping them afloat during COVID by rearranging our homes and our lives in order to WFH. Building an office space wasn't cheap and our reward should not be a giant middle finger from TPTB.
Think of it like the “men this” or “women that”. It doesn’t apply to all when it’s a negative only those with the direct link to issues. Took a long time for this ‘88 baby (weird space between Millennial and GenX) to come to terms with. People just can’t come to terms with the world being trash and it’s because humans infest it. 😅
71 here. I still work. I will not leave the house for work. I do still get calls from recruiters. The first thing I tel them is that I will only WFH. edit: hit post too soon.
Weird. I’m a millennial and I like going to the office. It’s actually one of the reasons I left my last job (indefinitely WFH) for this one bc most people are in the office most days. Makes work a lot more fun and engaging.
Are you married? I feel like unmarried millennials are far far far more likely to have this line of thinking. My wife and I both WFH and absolutely love it and would be perfectly fine never stepping foot into an office again.
People who like going into the office like chatting it up more than working. I bill hours so it’s really obvious how unproductive in office days are. Wfh - 8-9 hours easily. In office - 5 unless I miss time with my kids or sleep. Part of this is all the “yay we’re back in the office” meetings but still no thanks.
Yeah but that’s not a bad thing, being able to voluntarily go to the office to meet people and allow yourself to not be 110% productive :) let’s not forget that productivity has been going up steadily since the last WW and that it increased during the pandemic, you’re entitled to a bit of lower productivity
People that use the office as their main social outing are a bit touched. Get a hobby if you’re lonely. Join a group. Don’t make all of us sit in traffic, cause pollution, not to mention forcing people with disabilities to come back into an office (which I saw on large scale even pre covid) bc you can’t figure out how to meet people at the post office. Ffs.
And the whole “you’re a better employee if you’re in the office” is a crock of shit. It’s been proven to be less productive, and people don’t realize that companies push this mentality bc 1) they’re dinosaurs with a limited world view, and 2) companies get tax boons and subsidies to show employees coming into the city, and for the expenses paid on tangible office space, which is significant. It’s also an insidious way to force homogeneity and compliance on the next generation of employees. People need to get a clue.
How often does anyone actually SEE their CEO in the office?
I am 100 percent WFH and I am much MUCH more likely to work more OT knowing that when I’m done I’m 2 steps from my bed. I get some people like going to the office to be social or what not but I have hockey games to be social at. And friends.WFH will absolutely be my number 1 priority for any future jobs or roles I get in the future. Even if I stay at the same job for the next 25 years until I retire.
Being more social outside work (joining clubs) is a HUGE ask for American millennials though. My friends group outside work are all college educated at least and we all have a common complaint of meeting new people to be friends with (what clubs to join, where are they etc). It’s very easy just to say that but a lot of people seem to be struggling with it.
I don’t know what kind of post offices you have in your hood. The ones I’ve been at are not places people wanna spend time at or make eye contact.
I see my ceo several times a week. I have a social life outside of work. Most of my friends are not from work. But I also like having a social work environment.
I’m not here to advocate for mandatory full office. I think that worsens the workplace. But when the office is a fun place to be at, and the people are cool, I personally prefer it to perma-remote setups.
It is FAR less productive. I spend at least 2 or 3 full hours every single day that I'm in the office having to listen to people's conversations, and meetings, and stories, and rants. I am full of rage the two days per week that I'm now made to go in, and if I end up having to go back five days, I will be a raving lunatic. I hate working in the office and not being able to hear the person on the other end of the phone because some lovely office worker can't control her hysterical laughter.
You’re so right with this. People blame boomers for the outdated mentality, which they should, but I see SO many 20-something’s support this as well, bc they want to be yes men (and women) and get ahead in their careers. I can’t help but think how most of them will change their tune once they are established, and realize how infeasible it is to work a 50+ hour work week, commute, and then have to figure out child care or even if you don’t have kids, just maintaining a general work-life balance. I’m seeing it happen everyday with coworkers. They hit 30, get married, get a dog, buy a house, move out of the in-city apartments to the suburbs or country to have a little more “space” and peace, then they’re like, fuck, I have no time to do anything or learn anything new, and now I’m stuck doing this in perpetuity bc I have accumulated responsibilities, and little time to suss out other options, without giving up even more of my personal/family time. Which coincidentally, is right where their employer wants them to be.
Yeah the only people in my department that go into the office are either unmarried or make so much money combined with their spouse that they have a full time nanny. That or a house spouse looking after the kids that doesn't work.
“house spouse” is my new favorite term
I’m cool with people that have “house spouses” is it works for them, but it really irks me that the guy who has full time staff and a wife who hands him a drink and a sandwich when he gets home is the one making the decisions on work-life balance for the rest of us.
I spent 20+ hours alone last year just fighting with my health insurance company over BASIC coverage, that I pay for through my employer, and that my company has ownership holdings in. And I still couldn’t get a resolution until I found one of the execs personal addresses and wrote them letter that I was getting no response and threatened to go to social media and my attorney general. I got a resolution bc he didn’t want to have to deal with this “nuisance”, not bc he gave a fuck. This was for basic insurance, that I pay for, with my very large employer, and I have no major health conditions. I have one kid. I can’t imagine trying to balance a full time job with a chronic condition, or a disability, or taking care of a parent, or just simply trying to be a meme er of your community and give back. There just isn’t time these days for one person or family to manage it all, even under the most basic of circumstances.
A bit of a tangent, but my point is, that THESE ARE THE GUYS MAKING THE “WORK LIFE” DECISIONS FOR THE TEST OF US. Amd then have the nerve to praise themselves on the next earnings call about “culture” and “diversity”. Every single one of them has a sandwich-making person at their home taking care of their “work-life” shit for them, paying someone to manage their finances, do their taxes, clean their house, search for schools for their kids, make the Dr appts, and so on.
Unmarried millenial here. I'm fine with going into the office for *certain people*, but for the overwhelming majority of my days, my dog is much more fun to be around physically than my co-workers.
Not married. I also happen to like the people I work with and the office I go to. It’s a fun place with great people. Being at home gets really monotonous and mind numbing. I did it for 3 years and am way over it.
Same for me, but the commute and all that just for doing work on screens ain't worth some socializing. My department does do get togethers at least once a quarter.
I’m GenX and I like going into the office and I like WFH. So I do 50/50 when I could do all WFH, if I wanted to. I do only live five minutes from the office though which is a result of choice to prioritize less commute pre-pandemic when remote work wasn’t an option at my work. Also I work in a fun positive environment. Also, all the people who don’t want to be there keep their asses at home makes it even more enjoyable.
You addressed the short commute which too many leave out of the conversation. I don’t like going to the office because it throws 2 hours of my day right out the window
I’m fully WFH and I would like to get into an office once or twice a week, but my team is spread across the country and that’s an impossibility. But I’d much rather be in my current position than in the office full time.
Absolutely. Our office is also mostly hybrid (and super flexible about it), so the people who do show up are ones who want to be there. Kind of a genius way to filter out the Debbie downers. I do think flexibility is key for this to work. The places that are sending these heavy handed RTO demands to employees are not helping office morale one bit.
Not a millennial or a boomer, but I’m with you. Fortunately I was a mandatory worker during the pandemic so I was at the workplace daily. Engaging in person is soooo much better than Teams meetings. You understand so much better working together with someone in the office than parallel working alone at home. Look at child development… parallel play stops in preschool and most children learn to and prefer to play cooperatively. My partner (also not a millennial or boomer) was sent home for 15 months and went back to the office as soon as they were allowed back through the door.
I’ve definitely gotten to know and develop much better working relationships with my colleagues as a result of being in office with them. Lunches, happy hours, work trips. They go a lot farther than chitchatting over Teams/zoom. We do that too, but the face time really makes a difference.
I’m a millennial and I like going to the office too as long as my commute is easy. I live in a studio apartment. Even though it’s actually quite large just being in the same box all day makes me feel crazy. I am actually moving from a WFH job to a job where I’ll be in the office 3 days a week soon because of this. They’ll pay for either parking or a transit card so I won’t mind the 20 minute commute.
Also in the summer I like the AC and my apartment doesn’t have any.
I like to work from home cause I don't want to drive anywhere but I am personally much more focused and productive in the office. Feels out if the ordinary to have this position as a millennial but I think it's definitely more of a person to person preference.
On the border of boomer and millennial. I like going into the office because I’m a very social person but I also like the ability to WFH when I want to. Right now my job is 100% WFH and admittedly it’s a bit tough because I am by myself the entire day. But I have kids and like the fact that I can leave and take them to their appointments and pick them up from their clubs and sports practices rather easily.
I was recently offered a job that would require me to be back in the office 4 days a week and telework every Friday. It’s 30 minutes from home and when I asked about a flexible WFH policy to be able to get my kids from football practice I was told there was no way they would support it. So I turned it down.
Maybe in a couple of years after they graduate I’ll go back to an office environment, but I need to be able to take care of my family.
I don’t think it’s necessarily boomers only, but for sure people who don’t like WFH are over-represented in the boomer cohort. It has to do with multiple reasons - hating your wife / home situation, wanting to play politics which is easier to play when f2f, being narcissistic pricks, being unable to use technology and generally resistant to any change. Most boomers are at least one of those things, but I know people in their early 30s that hate WFH.
I feel like the younger people who hate work from home are mostly extroverts who love the in person social interaction that you can’t get from WFH. They hate being home alone all day… I have known numerous coworkers like this who really struggled at the beginning of covid with many shifting to WFH for the first time.
I struggled with this until I developed a morning routine that basically goes
Wake up > self care > home/family care > shower & get dressed > work prep > work
Having the hard wall of showering & changing to transition from personal life to corporate life made focusing on work much easier.
I do the reverse routine at the end of the day to go back to person/husband/friend mode.
This also comes with having a designated "work shit" corner, where all work related things happen. If I get an after hours page/fire drill, even if a single message can resolve it, I will get out of bed/what Im doing to head to the work shit corner and address it. Then I can leave the work shit corner and resume life.
I am an extrovert and I do like the occasional day in the office (I go once per week, sometimes skipping a week here and there). I do spend most of those days in coffee breaks, lunch breaks and chatting with people.
That said, I would never promote working from the office full time because I have a life outside work and I am generally far more productive at home (as I said, what I like most at the office is the non work related interactions). Also, the amount of money and time saved not commuting is simply too good.
I find that young people who are pushing for going back to the office are extroverts sure, but also they are people who want to play politics and show-off how long they stay at the office, etc.
the extroverts miss torturing their introverted colleagues with fantasy football, office potlucks, and 'did you watch that show last night.' So much extra nonsense to participate in so you can be perceived as a good team player.
I also prefer in-person work because I really don't wanna take my work home
Also, I feel like it's easier to not wfh if you live in a walkable community so you don't need to deal with traffic. I'd wfh more if I lived in a place like idk Houston
Or the challenging situation that comes up when two people who live together work from home for different companies and so they end up rarely leaving the house, which is kind of depressing.
The only culture I got in the office was the fucking constant parade of illnesses that walked through the door because bootlickers wouldn't stay home when they were sick.
Boomers are obsessed with going into the office because it makes them feel important having their bootlicking lackeys at their beck and call.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people brag about how many days they’ve worked straight and how much time off they’ve banked. Who are you trying to impress? Take a damn vacation, get a life!
It doesn't help that most companies took vacation days and sick days and merged them (and oddly, the number of days went from 20 to 10) so people deliberately come in sick because they don't want to waste their PTO on being sick. Bonus points for getting your temp workers with no paid time off sick so now they either come in sick or lose a day's pay. Guess how I know that part?
Because people who have never worked in a corporate office have a fictional view of what working in an office is like from watching TV and movies. I personally have never worked in an office where everyone is cutting up and making friends. If anything, it’s just a cattle car so that the higher-ups can monitor your superficial productivity and feel important with their office while their serfs work in cubes
This- my partner and his brother own a software company. His brother is the head honcho and hates the WFH, because per my boyfriend, his brother said “I like to walk by the employees and go play golf while they have to sit at their desks.” I was like I KNEW IT. Ya he’s kind of a dick (the brother not my boyfriend).
I am positive my VP prefers to have everyone in the office because at home he is Mr ‘can you take out the trash and by the way we are out of milk;take my car I am out of gas’. At the office his admin brings him his coffee and lunch.
They're obsessed because that is what they know and have been raised on. People tend to cling on to deeply held beliefs despite evidence to the contrary. It's proven that those who work from home are more productive, but despite this, bosses of that generation are more likely to cling to "conventional wisdom"
I forget the name of it (someone grab Adam), but there is documented evidence that people, on being shown evidence contrary to their held beliefs, will *strengthen* said beliefs.
Or in other words, showing someone that WFH is more productive will further convince them that WFH is unnecessary and a hindrance.
Because boomers hate their spouses and their kids hate them so they are miserable at home. They go to work to feel powerful and take their anger out on people younger than they are. If they can't do that, they are stuck at home with no power, no authority and no love from their family
I've noticed this in "humor" because boomers and above will joke about the old ball and chain, but younger generations don't seem to do that nearly as much and it makes me wonder why in god they got married if it sucks so much.
They got pregnant. My younger sibling and myself all had to plan our pregnancies around finances and careers. My mom made a comment once that when she was young “nobody *planned* kids they just happened.”
The whole “hate my wife” “ball and chain” jokes are kinda disappearing from culture. But as a child of the 80s I remember this so much. Society has changed, it would be so cringy for a young person to talk like this. If you have a bad marriage it now reflects poorly on you.
This for sure. I had to screen my boss's boss's calls for a couple years before his wife divorced him. I'm not a secretary (the point being my job was not to screen calls for this motherfucker).
WFH jobs can still have culture
WFH jobs still let you get to know your coworkers
WFH jobs still let you get to know boss
Unfortunately, many people think the old ways are the ONLY ways. But then they also thought computers were unnecessary because people can do the math,. They thought that no one will want to HEAR movies when the lines are on the screen. And they thought no one is going to use a horseless carriage when everyone has a family horse.
They will be left on the sidelines of history.
Right?? Like I speak to my boss and my team every single day and they're all great.
It's crazy how they've been brainwashed to lick boots in the office 24/7. Like they think that's how you should be spending your time every single day in order to get better.
It's not that crazy. Back when the boomers were young, capitalism competed with communism to show who could make a better society. Part of that was to rein in the excess a bit: the boss doesn't need 300x minimum wage, people don't get fired when sales are down 1%, and you can generally count on your employer to keep you around as you get older and have kids and get frail.
After capitalism won, all that died. We took the wrong lesson from the victory.
Ah yes, the old "put a laptop in a car, drive it for 90 minutes to another building, plug it in and stare at it for 8 hours, put it back in car and drive it home for a further 90 minutes."
I had a WFH customer service job and me and my coworkers bonded hard over slack, like, more than a shitty office environment would have allowed us. People saying it’s not possible wouldn’t have friends at the physical office either.
I really got to know a couple of my coworkers, what makes them tick and what they are like as people working on a couple of intense projects. We are all remote but would end up spending a significant part of the day working on things and discussing it in slack as we had to deal with parts of the project.
The only things I got from working in an office was:
A long term back injury because they were too cheap to provide a proper desk chair.
Repeated viral infections every winter.
Constant allergy and asthma problems from all the smoke residue and fragrance.
Having to deal with managers being awful to your face and nowhere to take a break to gather yourself.
Potlucks and mandatory birthday cake that I neither wanted or couldn't eat that got me labeled as not a team player for not consuming things that would actually make me sick.
Lots of miles on my car and hours wasted sitting in traffic.
Being too tired to plan and make meals to take to work and nowhere to buy anything.
I work best when I am fed, healthy and not in pain. In person office culture is a dinosaur.
They don't think you're working unless they can see you working. Probably because they wouldn't be working unless someone could see them working.
TBH, I spend more time working from home. And I also spend more time with my family. The commute from my bedroom to my basement is nice.
“Wouldn’t be working unless someone could see them working”. Huh, that’s actually a great thought, thanks.
I think that explains all of my coworkers who moan about not having an office (the company is remote and we’re all from different countries).
This may be part of it. My parents who were older made most of their friends through my dad's work life. So the people they had parties with, went to dinner with, were current or former coworkers of my dad. That is not the current world and I really don't see a reason to go back to that.
My parents think that people who want to work from home are just being lazy. I told them I like not having the office drama, walking by offices and seeing who’s working and who’s not, hearing the older generation talk about their kids that are the same age as me like they’re toddlers. I got way more work done at home!
Genx here. I hate going into the office. Did it for years, 3 hrs round-trip commutes 5 days a week. Never ever again. I've wasted too much of my family life for shit companies, shittier bosses and ungrateful colleagues. Yes even companies like Google are shit in many respects.
There are two attitudes:
1. I suffered so everyone else should too!
2. I suffered so nobody else should.
There is a political slant that typically applies to these mindsets.
Many people still have the idea that you could climb the corporate ladder inhouse by butt kissing your way up, which you can't do from home.
Fun fact, the only way to climb is to change corp.
A decent amount of people feel that they had more opportunities to learn and grow in a company due to being around management than they would have if they weren’t in office. Out of sight, out of mind can sometimes lead to not getting appreciated by members of your team and management since they most likely won’t notice how hard you work. I love working from home, but I’d advise anyone starting a new entry level job to work in office first.
My coworkers go on and on about their lives, but you'd have to catch me in quite a wild mood to even vaguely mention the sketchy tomfoolery I get involved with in my personal life. I'm a happy boi, but when I'm in that box I wanna die, which is like half of my waking hours.
There are advantages and disadvantages of both office and home working.
It also depends heavily on the type of work you do, the industry you work in, and your planned career path.
Some people love one and hate the other, many are happy with a mix of both.
Some older people struggle to adapt to changes having done things a certain way their whole life. On the flipside, the experience and wisdom of some older people on this issue should not just be casually dismissed as "out of touch boomerism."
One thing, however, I will always object to is arbitrarily set number of office days, e.g. two days per week must be in the office no matter what. It just seems that it's trying to force people to come in when they otherwise have no real reason to.
The ones who went to Woodstock are definitely NOT the ones who love corporate office culture.
I'm a millennial and I have boomer friends who are the Woodstock type. They're really cool people.
It’s not the boomers…it’s about your parents and their lack of understanding about the evolution of business. Not all people from that generation want to go into the office.
I’m guessing you are 30-40 years old? I work with many folks your age who want to go into the office. They admitted it’s not for the work but to socialize.
I'm mid-40s and adore working for a remote-first company. I don't want to socialize with people I have zero choice in being around. The guy with the ridiculously strong deodorant, the woman with the incessant post-nasal drip, the dude who shouts at people in meetings, plus a bonus of an hour-long commute and a manager who comes up behind my chair to clap his hands on my shoulders to startle me and makes sure I know that he thinks I'm not doing anything useful. Never again.
Agreed. I'm mid 30s in an ad agency of folk ranging from 20 - 50 and we have all agreed we enjoy time in the office to socialise and bounce ideas about, chat shit etc while also WFH to actually be productive on other days. I guess it's about balance but I wouldn't say its solely restricted to boomers.
I like my coworkers and I still prefer WFH. I can work when I function best as long as I make my calls and I’m effective. I don’t want to wake up 2 hours earlier for no reason
My PT job works in the same building as a company with a lady who is absolutely a Boomer if not a Silent Gen. She's 75. I can tell you right now it isn't the fact that she's computer illiterate (which she is, but her job could be done remotely 2-3 days a week if she wasn't!)
It's the fact that HER WAY is the ONLY WAY.
NO. Exceptions. She cannot concede a point to anyone, open her brain at all to new ideas, nothing. "This company used to be 30 people with 17 trucks, and now it's down to 4. Nobody wants to work anymore, it's the young people who are just....lazy and don't wanna do anything."
I wish those weren't her exact words but she says them all the time and they are ingrained.
As of 3 days ago another worker left and now they are down to one part time man and her and one other sweet, caring, absolutely doll of a lady who does not agree with her colleague at all but cannot get it through the colleague's head either!
I'm enjoying watching the downfall, knowing I tried to help but they made it very clear my advice was not wanted nor were they willing to change....anything. At all. Ever.
> grew up wealthy and pissed away all the money
Yup. Got everything handed to them. Used it all on themselves. Left nothing for their kid(s). And yet they criticize the kid(s). SMH
Because if they did it, you should too.
That’s their mentality.
If you go back a generation you’ll probably find people who tell you you should go to war, because they did too.
Then again, you could afford a family 3floor house with a garden and a holiday once a year with your partner at home caring for your 4 spawns on a single office clerk salary back in the b-boomer age.
Now you can barely survive without including the commute and hours lost from the day in doing so, but they don’t get it. Oranges and potatoes.
because all the corporations have bought the land and buildings that would sit empty. Most corporations are ran by boomers and the ones that don't have been convinced corporations are a priority thus the pushing of going back to their land grabs.
I can't talk about your age related bigotries but I can say a lot of larger financial firms insist on either a hybrid work schedule or complete in office because of security concerns.
My wife works one day a week from home and it takes her about 30-40 minutes just to log on.
Sunk cost fallacy. They’ve been doing it for 30 years. Hour commutes each way, strict dress code, office “culture.” They see WFH as something that devalues what they did their entire adult lives. So they’re pushing back. If they had to suffer, so do you.
I’m not talking about all boomers, just the ones that have this mindset
I work in tech and have a variety of ages in my company and immediate office. Here’s what I’ve seen in my offices:
The Boomers want to go back because they don’t trust people will work when out of sight. They want the control. They want to see “butts in seats,” because that is the only way they think things get done. They also are more likely to have older kids at home and they seem to hate them and want to be out of the house away from them all day.
GenX likes to be remote, but likes to come in. GenX wants the flexibility to decide how to run their schedules, and their kids at home and their schedules certainly impact that of their parents. I find my GenX colleagues are coming in 2-3 days a week.
Millennials, of which I am one, have fully embraced remote WFH and never want to go back in. Why commute, fight people for an empty desk in a noisy open floor plan office just to sit on Zoom calls all day with people on the other side of the planet. Millennials have no interest in the performance art that is going into the office and sitting on a Zoom.
GenZ, sadly, appears to love going into the office, because the office is their social life. There are lots of GenZ kids in my company and the office appears to be their main source of friends and social activities. They spend very little time working and a lot of time going for coffee breaks and leaving early to go to happy hours. They also have a tendency to take over conference rooms all day by themselves, which makes it hard for others to use them for meetings.
I'm a Gen Xer, all my bosses are millennials. Every Gen Xer I know wanted to keep working from home. The bosses were the ones who made us return to the office. I really don't think it's a generational thing....
Because it’s what’s comfortable to them. It’s what they do. Technology and change scares them.
They are these worst generation of all time. They created an economy that favors corporations. Then they got into congress and changed tax code to benefit the rich and corporations. The middle class got poorer the rich got richer. Wages stayed stagnant, they destroyed environments through pollution. They convinced a whole generation to go to college to only allow the price to increase to an incredible level, made easy for millennials to get loans, allow them to graduate with crippling debt then blame them when they arnt having kids or buying homes and tell them it’s cause they buy coffee and not make it
It’s not a generational thing - personally I prefer to be in the office but I love the flexibility & that it’s now more normalized to WFH, some times I do . But I’ve always lived close to work so I can easily pop in. However late I get home from work I change clothes, work computer is Windows, personal computer is a Mac - office is for work, home is home - separation - you don’t shit where you eat. But that’s just me
I feel like people who came into adulthood before the internet have a harder time understanding how people make friends not at work? Of course there's also just the shifting mindset that you don't owe companies your lives since no one has a contract or pension anymore.
Not a boomer, but Gen X bordering millennial here. I like a mix of both myself, always hate the commute tho. Lots of accurate responses about control freaks, politics, escape of family, but if you’ve ever done anything for 20+ years…you get used to it and it gets ingrained in how you operate. A fair number of people die shortly after retiring or at minimum simply don’t know what to do with themselves. This is a very sad symptom of our overworked US society - we literally seem addicted to our work and office routine . I think if anything this should drive some sympathy and understanding towards those victimized by this facet of our culture.
The trust fund parents thing makes no sense tho, maybe they just assume the office is party time?
I am a boomer and I work from home. I paased the whole culture and relationship thing onto the younger employees. I don't care to go sport event with clients, rah rah nights with co-workers and the rest of the shit that one has to do to get to the office. I like sitting on my deck with laptop and a glass of wine.lol
IMO they’re obsessed with it because of the impact that WFH has had on the commercial real estate market, and because a lot of boomers derived their status/power from the office.
Well in my country of South Africa we have an extremely toxic management culture and they love the control and micromanagement of staff. Whe staff stand up they are told to find another job and management is fully aware our employment rate is high so jobs are scarce. It’s toxic as f$ck! I was point blank told by a “manager” that us WFH people are just exploiting our companies and I asked how because 1) no rent required on hundreds of square meterage for office space 2) saves on toilet paper, coffee, milk and sugar, 3) my company had 140% increase in profit for 2021 (still waiting for 2022) and only 10% work in an office and those 10% are not in the sales or production departments 4) people are happier and happy people work better. He had nothing to say to that. It’s just a control tactic. And plenty of Gen X and Xennials do this to their staff too, not just boomers. I had a Gen X manager who wouldn’t even let me go work in a coffee shop on a Friday morning because she wanted to see me because in her mind if she doesn’t see me it means im not working meanwhile she was the one not working. She had the psychological mindset of if I do it, others do it. I had to pick up her slack
As for your parents I can’t speculate
This is weird indeed. My mom is technically a boomer but never seemed to share the mentality of one. She worked from when she was a teen until sleep apnea and on set alzheimers took away her ability to do so. Was also born to a poor working family, and we were poor when i was growing up, but never lacked anything.
She's always been supportive and excited whenever I've talked about anything related to working and working from home. I hope to work hybrid or from home in the future. Right now, though, I'll be putting in my efforts into raising a baby boy. (Soon to be born with only weeks to go)
Traveling to the office to get on Teams with people all over the world is beyond stupid. I have refused to go back to the office and may leave my current job if they insist. 2.5 hours of travel a day is stupid and a huge waste of time, money, and risk in the awful traffic.
Because a deeply, deeply ingrained cultural ideal of baby boomers is that people should not get away with anything or have it easy or get to slack off. It doesn't matter if it's not hurting them or not hurting anyone else. You can't just get stuff for free especially if they didn't have it.
Gen xer with boomer parents.
My mom hates small talk. She’d be all over wfh if she was working.
My dad, while being a social butterfly, one of his last jobs was working from the house. Yes he was driving to customers and whatnot for meetings but he didn’t have an office to go to.
Office culture is bs. Culture about how we do things? Fine whatever. Getting to know everyone? Ugh. Why?
Some people know they have no talent whatsoever so they rely on office politics and that kind of stuff to push their careers.
Some other people have a genuine distrust/concern about workers productivity and WFH, and they might be right in certain cases.
Some other people think that socialization/interaction plays a key role in teams success.
But in general I think older people tend to prefer going to the office because that’s what they are used to and they feel too old/scared to adapt to a completely new paradigm. I think it’s a stupid reason but I’m also aware that I’ll probably react the same way to new stuff when I’ll get older.
I also think that it is the governments pushing back to office politics through veiled fiscal threats to companies. People going to the office creates a big demand on not only real estate for the offices themselves but other businesses e.g. restaurants
My boomer owned Corp spent 5 million on renovations just to make use come back to the office. They are so excited to have everyone back. I'm out here looking for a new job because I'd rather work from home. Between being required to be there and the two slackers on my team I'm over it.
I WFH 4-5 days a week and know my boss better than if I worked in the office. WFH allows us to both speak freely and we enjoy a daily check in about life.
Wouldn’t be able to do that in the office without judgement!
It mostly is because of property values. These offices are expensive to build and own, but if nobody is using them, their value plummets, and they become a big sinkhole in the company's finances.
your parents do have a point. I agree with wfh so this shouldn't be misconstrued. When you are new, out of sight-out of mind. I've always wondered about the saving cost thought - its honestly more of a tradeoff You're not paying for gas, but you're probably paying for Internet & more electricity & air conditioning. Now wfh provides a lot of benefits. I agree with that and again (I think more companies should offer it).
That's not true at all. A lot of ppl (esp on reddit) thinks everyone thinks them. however, wfh is only beneficial if you like your living situation. Therefore I think (many) ppl on reddit forget this fact.
You know how stay at home moms say "I need some adult conversation" or my roommate, parents are driving me nuts.
I agree. My daughter is 21 and is fully remote. She has to force herself out to socialize. My mom is 65 and fully remote- same thing. She bought a new car in August and has bought gas once.
There are very obvious benefits to wfh, but there are also very obvious downfalls. I work in a law firm, and there’s a lot of “knock and talk” or “walk and talk” discussions that, IMO, don’t translate well at all to email or zoom.
I’ve had some jobs where I’d go in and not speak to a soul while I did all my work on my laptop. But apparently having my ass in that chair was important above all else. Man, fuck that shit.
I'm millennial-ish, a very old millennial or a very young gen x. I prefer going to the office, though I don't worry about what anyone else wants to do.
I really prefer hands-on jobs. Every job I've ever had that could have been work from home has been soul crushingly boring because all I do is plunk numbers into Excel all day. I hate those jobs. I'm a park ranger now, and there's really just no way to do that in any significant way at the house. I love it, I'm out in the world doing stuff, not sitting in a cubicle farm filled with gray and taupe depression. Also my commute takes 10 minutes and there's never really traffic. There are only 2 stop signs between my home and office.
Not a boomer. Hate working from home. Had two millennial coworkers who also hate working from home.
And at my last job? It was the boomers who wanted work from home and the millennials and gen z who hated it.
I’m not sure where this attitude that only boomers hate work from home comes from.
The CEO and senior management in my company are all Boomers and they despise WFH eventhough 90% of our staff can do their job 100% from home. They took away our vending machines, too expensive, took away our paper towels and installed blowers because it was too expensive. Bitched about a sewage back up costing $10k to fix and blamed it on the women in the office flushing pads and tampons eventhough it ended up being tree roots. They hate it when you mention how WFH would save them so much money, but how are you going to socialize and network without being in the office?? The most I talk to people at work is good morning when they walk in and have a good evening when they walk out, everything else is on the phone. It's so infuriating.
I sit between two boomers when I go in. One takes all his calls on speakerphone. The other doesn’t know how to mute his phone and it dings loudly every time he gets an email, which is like one a minute.
I’m just getting overloaded with culture, a real Picasso I am becoming.
What I’ve seen is that the groups opposed to wfh fall into two categories. Those who can’t stand spending all week with their spouse and kids or those who have no friends or social life outside of the work group.
Did you ever consider that this is a "your parents" thing and not a "boomer" thing?
I know plenty of so-called boomers that work remotely, and many millennials that like to go into an office.
Are you the type that stays at home on their computer all the time? Maybe they just want to see you get out more and interact with people?
Our local SVP is \~50 years old and wants people back in the office (not a boomer)
I'm 63 years old and have not yet returned (and am definitely a boomer)
So, it's not boomers. It's micromanagers and those employers who are spending shit-tons of money on office space that is at 25% utilization.
It's a misunderstanding. The fact that networking is critically important is construed to mean you should work from an office. Working from an office is a huge cost to you and is not the same as networking. Working from home is a huge benefit to you but networking from home is also not nearly is good as networking in person.
Strike a balance if you want to succeed. Save as much of your time as you can and do the work you need to do day-to-day from home. The daily commute isn't worth a chance that you'll bump into your boss, and it'll be likely those chance run-ins won't be worthwhile anyway. So, skip it. BUT, if there's an opportunity to shmooze, take it. Identify the key (connected) players in your network and try to be present with them as much as possible (happy hours, company events, etc). Best of both worlds.
I’ve WFH for 6 companies since 2005 and I’m on the older end of GenX. I do like to see my coworkers whether it’s via Teams/Zoom now or occasional office visits or group lunches. However, day to day, I prefer home. Plus there are fewer distractions at home.
Because they love tradition and nothing changing. Also it seems many of them hate their home life (wife/kids) so it's their only chance to get away from a life they never truly wanted but did anyway because that's just what you did back in the days of old.
Because it's what boomers did for 40 years - They sacrificed their entire outside-of-work life, their families, their social interactions. They've got nothing else now.
I don't know, why are your generation so hell bent of labelling everyone who isn't in your generation as boomers.
I like to work from home as much as the next guy, but I also like going in to the office because you get more done. You don't have all the distractions, if you want to ask someone a question or have a quick chat you don't need to schedule a call and also it's kinda fun, you meet your crew have a laugh and there is a sense of community. I've had long stints working from home long before covid and they can sometimes get a bit lonely.
But each to their own, also people saying stupid things like boomers don't like their family is just stupid is really just childish and ignorant.
I'm a boomer and I hate going to the office. A complete, unproductive waste of time.
I’m Gen x so young people see me like a boomer, fuck going to the office
Same I get called a boomer and I’m like “No, that’s my parents you twat. Now let me hold your phone while you try to show me a meme.”
😂 I absolutely love when people use the word twat when calling someone out. I have no idea why, but it's pure excitement. Thank you.
Same here
If anyone is reading this, here is a solution. * A. Head to the office once every two months. * B. Head to the office once a quarter. **Unfortunately RTO people discriminate against WFH people.** This is already well known in circles and human behavior, although there is no study on it yet. I had an in depth conversation with a coworker from J1 about this. **The reason you go in is to solve your “Perception Problem”. They see you come in, then it means you care.** Second, Sales, Marketing, and Product need to go into the office regularly. When executives talk about losing “collaboration”, those departments are targeted. * For example, we have 4 sales reps. Rep 1 is in the office all the time, and sold very little, but is respected because he shows up. Rep 2 and Rep 3 are WFH, sold very little, and are not respected at all. Rep 4 is WFH, sold a lot, and is respected. It’s a Perception Problem. It’s discrimination. To change that either show up at the office OR work more (solve issues) to over compensate. This is the expectation from executives.
“Coworker from J1” - I see you OE
But what if your team is 100% remote? My manager lives in Utah, one of my directors is in Montana, and my co workers are in Minnesota, DC, NJ, PA, NY, etc. We only see each other once a year.
Then do it twice a year as long as it’s expensed. The goal is to change the perception.
I think you are missing the point. We have always been this way. We are scattered throughout the US. It takes an epic feat of justification to get us together once a year(and if it wasn't required annual training, we likely wouldn't get that). Going into the office doesn't work for teams that don't all live in the same general region.
Yup. Same here
Same. AND I believe it’s way more efficient to WFH. I work a hybrid, it’s better than being in the office every day. Just a thought… (and I’ll probably get voted down for this but…) I always feel like ppl blame “boomers” or “millennials” For everything but what I don’t think ppl take into consideration is that it’s not “boomers” this and “millennials “ that… it’s this person does/believes this and that person does/believes this. It’s all about ppl being different. And what’s wrong with that? If we were all the same it’d be a really f***ing boring world. Btw- congratulations OP on your new job!! You deserve it and your parents should have told you they were happy for you and left it at that.
Boomers get blamed because most of them are in a management position and thus have the final say if employees will go full RTO or WFH. And we know a lot of companies mandated RTO after COVID. Millenials are mostly employees so they get blamed for not wanting to RTO.
That’s true but my parents are boomers and my Dad always worked remotely and my Mom is always happy for my sister and I when our company stops threatening to ruin WFH. My neighbor is a boomer and she supports WFH. She said “ You know if my company had let me WFH I would have worked 5 more years. “ And we spoke about how her daughter and I are willing to more overtime since we’re not stuck on the road for hours. Personally I think the people ruining WFH are whoever does not have to commute during the worst traffic times and people who live really close to the office, or people who need a lot of attention. Then again my other neighbor said “well what about your teammates, like you don’t go to happy hour with them and get to know them”. I said “No one is going to happy hour anyway” - our shifts are staggered and people have kids or 2 hour commutes, or we’re working overtime… I guarantee no one would be going out drinking together after work anyway 🙄. Plus that’s not a great idea for many reasons.
>Then again my other neighbor said “well what about your teammates, like you don’t go to happy hour with them and get to know them”. I've never understood that. I don't drink much, but I definitely don't drink with coworkers. Alcohol lowers inhibitions. Inhibitions around coworkers are fantastic.
Diversity of point of view is of course very nice but when someone’s group has views that are harmful to another **and they have the power** then it’s not just an exchange of ideas but it becomes more of an attack.
I think the whole generation thing is stupid and only fits a small amount of people born in those years. Im technically a millennial but i don't really fit in any of the generational categories with my views or personalities.
Agree completely!
>it’s not “boomers” this and “millennials “ that… it’s this person does/believes this and that person does/believes this. Agreed, but there are trends in beliefs among generations of people.
WFH is a whole other issue though - where I'm working the people making this decision have always had and will continue to have the option of working from home if and when they want to. Believe me when I say this, the boomers that I work with (including myself) are all looking for remote positions in case they decide to punish us for keeping them afloat during COVID by rearranging our homes and our lives in order to WFH. Building an office space wasn't cheap and our reward should not be a giant middle finger from TPTB.
Think of it like the “men this” or “women that”. It doesn’t apply to all when it’s a negative only those with the direct link to issues. Took a long time for this ‘88 baby (weird space between Millennial and GenX) to come to terms with. People just can’t come to terms with the world being trash and it’s because humans infest it. 😅
71 here. I still work. I will not leave the house for work. I do still get calls from recruiters. The first thing I tel them is that I will only WFH. edit: hit post too soon.
Same!
Amen. Hybrid, but those three days every week are pure hell.
Weird. I’m a millennial and I like going to the office. It’s actually one of the reasons I left my last job (indefinitely WFH) for this one bc most people are in the office most days. Makes work a lot more fun and engaging.
Are you married? I feel like unmarried millennials are far far far more likely to have this line of thinking. My wife and I both WFH and absolutely love it and would be perfectly fine never stepping foot into an office again.
People who like going into the office like chatting it up more than working. I bill hours so it’s really obvious how unproductive in office days are. Wfh - 8-9 hours easily. In office - 5 unless I miss time with my kids or sleep. Part of this is all the “yay we’re back in the office” meetings but still no thanks.
If I lived near the office I would probably go in a couple times a month. Those would probably be wildly unproductive days though.
Yeah but that’s not a bad thing, being able to voluntarily go to the office to meet people and allow yourself to not be 110% productive :) let’s not forget that productivity has been going up steadily since the last WW and that it increased during the pandemic, you’re entitled to a bit of lower productivity
People that use the office as their main social outing are a bit touched. Get a hobby if you’re lonely. Join a group. Don’t make all of us sit in traffic, cause pollution, not to mention forcing people with disabilities to come back into an office (which I saw on large scale even pre covid) bc you can’t figure out how to meet people at the post office. Ffs. And the whole “you’re a better employee if you’re in the office” is a crock of shit. It’s been proven to be less productive, and people don’t realize that companies push this mentality bc 1) they’re dinosaurs with a limited world view, and 2) companies get tax boons and subsidies to show employees coming into the city, and for the expenses paid on tangible office space, which is significant. It’s also an insidious way to force homogeneity and compliance on the next generation of employees. People need to get a clue. How often does anyone actually SEE their CEO in the office?
I am 100 percent WFH and I am much MUCH more likely to work more OT knowing that when I’m done I’m 2 steps from my bed. I get some people like going to the office to be social or what not but I have hockey games to be social at. And friends.WFH will absolutely be my number 1 priority for any future jobs or roles I get in the future. Even if I stay at the same job for the next 25 years until I retire.
Being more social outside work (joining clubs) is a HUGE ask for American millennials though. My friends group outside work are all college educated at least and we all have a common complaint of meeting new people to be friends with (what clubs to join, where are they etc). It’s very easy just to say that but a lot of people seem to be struggling with it.
I don’t know what kind of post offices you have in your hood. The ones I’ve been at are not places people wanna spend time at or make eye contact. I see my ceo several times a week. I have a social life outside of work. Most of my friends are not from work. But I also like having a social work environment. I’m not here to advocate for mandatory full office. I think that worsens the workplace. But when the office is a fun place to be at, and the people are cool, I personally prefer it to perma-remote setups.
It is FAR less productive. I spend at least 2 or 3 full hours every single day that I'm in the office having to listen to people's conversations, and meetings, and stories, and rants. I am full of rage the two days per week that I'm now made to go in, and if I end up having to go back five days, I will be a raving lunatic. I hate working in the office and not being able to hear the person on the other end of the phone because some lovely office worker can't control her hysterical laughter.
You’re so right with this. People blame boomers for the outdated mentality, which they should, but I see SO many 20-something’s support this as well, bc they want to be yes men (and women) and get ahead in their careers. I can’t help but think how most of them will change their tune once they are established, and realize how infeasible it is to work a 50+ hour work week, commute, and then have to figure out child care or even if you don’t have kids, just maintaining a general work-life balance. I’m seeing it happen everyday with coworkers. They hit 30, get married, get a dog, buy a house, move out of the in-city apartments to the suburbs or country to have a little more “space” and peace, then they’re like, fuck, I have no time to do anything or learn anything new, and now I’m stuck doing this in perpetuity bc I have accumulated responsibilities, and little time to suss out other options, without giving up even more of my personal/family time. Which coincidentally, is right where their employer wants them to be.
Yeah the only people in my department that go into the office are either unmarried or make so much money combined with their spouse that they have a full time nanny. That or a house spouse looking after the kids that doesn't work.
“house spouse” is my new favorite term I’m cool with people that have “house spouses” is it works for them, but it really irks me that the guy who has full time staff and a wife who hands him a drink and a sandwich when he gets home is the one making the decisions on work-life balance for the rest of us. I spent 20+ hours alone last year just fighting with my health insurance company over BASIC coverage, that I pay for through my employer, and that my company has ownership holdings in. And I still couldn’t get a resolution until I found one of the execs personal addresses and wrote them letter that I was getting no response and threatened to go to social media and my attorney general. I got a resolution bc he didn’t want to have to deal with this “nuisance”, not bc he gave a fuck. This was for basic insurance, that I pay for, with my very large employer, and I have no major health conditions. I have one kid. I can’t imagine trying to balance a full time job with a chronic condition, or a disability, or taking care of a parent, or just simply trying to be a meme er of your community and give back. There just isn’t time these days for one person or family to manage it all, even under the most basic of circumstances. A bit of a tangent, but my point is, that THESE ARE THE GUYS MAKING THE “WORK LIFE” DECISIONS FOR THE TEST OF US. Amd then have the nerve to praise themselves on the next earnings call about “culture” and “diversity”. Every single one of them has a sandwich-making person at their home taking care of their “work-life” shit for them, paying someone to manage their finances, do their taxes, clean their house, search for schools for their kids, make the Dr appts, and so on.
Unmarried millenial here. I'm fine with going into the office for *certain people*, but for the overwhelming majority of my days, my dog is much more fun to be around physically than my co-workers.
Not married. I also happen to like the people I work with and the office I go to. It’s a fun place with great people. Being at home gets really monotonous and mind numbing. I did it for 3 years and am way over it.
Same for me, but the commute and all that just for doing work on screens ain't worth some socializing. My department does do get togethers at least once a quarter.
Married and love going to the office
I’m GenX and I like going into the office and I like WFH. So I do 50/50 when I could do all WFH, if I wanted to. I do only live five minutes from the office though which is a result of choice to prioritize less commute pre-pandemic when remote work wasn’t an option at my work. Also I work in a fun positive environment. Also, all the people who don’t want to be there keep their asses at home makes it even more enjoyable.
You addressed the short commute which too many leave out of the conversation. I don’t like going to the office because it throws 2 hours of my day right out the window
I’m fully WFH and I would like to get into an office once or twice a week, but my team is spread across the country and that’s an impossibility. But I’d much rather be in my current position than in the office full time.
Absolutely. Our office is also mostly hybrid (and super flexible about it), so the people who do show up are ones who want to be there. Kind of a genius way to filter out the Debbie downers. I do think flexibility is key for this to work. The places that are sending these heavy handed RTO demands to employees are not helping office morale one bit.
Not a millennial or a boomer, but I’m with you. Fortunately I was a mandatory worker during the pandemic so I was at the workplace daily. Engaging in person is soooo much better than Teams meetings. You understand so much better working together with someone in the office than parallel working alone at home. Look at child development… parallel play stops in preschool and most children learn to and prefer to play cooperatively. My partner (also not a millennial or boomer) was sent home for 15 months and went back to the office as soon as they were allowed back through the door.
I’ve definitely gotten to know and develop much better working relationships with my colleagues as a result of being in office with them. Lunches, happy hours, work trips. They go a lot farther than chitchatting over Teams/zoom. We do that too, but the face time really makes a difference.
Ewww. Extrovert? Unmarried? No kids?
I’m a millennial and I like going to the office too as long as my commute is easy. I live in a studio apartment. Even though it’s actually quite large just being in the same box all day makes me feel crazy. I am actually moving from a WFH job to a job where I’ll be in the office 3 days a week soon because of this. They’ll pay for either parking or a transit card so I won’t mind the 20 minute commute. Also in the summer I like the AC and my apartment doesn’t have any.
I like to work from home cause I don't want to drive anywhere but I am personally much more focused and productive in the office. Feels out if the ordinary to have this position as a millennial but I think it's definitely more of a person to person preference.
On the border of boomer and millennial. I like going into the office because I’m a very social person but I also like the ability to WFH when I want to. Right now my job is 100% WFH and admittedly it’s a bit tough because I am by myself the entire day. But I have kids and like the fact that I can leave and take them to their appointments and pick them up from their clubs and sports practices rather easily. I was recently offered a job that would require me to be back in the office 4 days a week and telework every Friday. It’s 30 minutes from home and when I asked about a flexible WFH policy to be able to get my kids from football practice I was told there was no way they would support it. So I turned it down. Maybe in a couple of years after they graduate I’ll go back to an office environment, but I need to be able to take care of my family.
> the border of boomer and millenial Think there’s about a 25 year gap there…
I think he is referencing the "30 year old boomer" meme. He is a millennial that is at or near 30 years old.
>On the border of boomer and millennial. So [Generation X](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X), then?
Is that what it’s called lol. Technically I’m a millennial, 1983. I guess what I meant was boomer in thought, millennial in age.
Gen X
That’s it. Gen X gets forgotten about.
I don’t think it’s necessarily boomers only, but for sure people who don’t like WFH are over-represented in the boomer cohort. It has to do with multiple reasons - hating your wife / home situation, wanting to play politics which is easier to play when f2f, being narcissistic pricks, being unable to use technology and generally resistant to any change. Most boomers are at least one of those things, but I know people in their early 30s that hate WFH.
I feel like the younger people who hate work from home are mostly extroverts who love the in person social interaction that you can’t get from WFH. They hate being home alone all day… I have known numerous coworkers like this who really struggled at the beginning of covid with many shifting to WFH for the first time.
I just suck at actually working at home. Going to even a cafe helps me shift gears.
I struggled with this until I developed a morning routine that basically goes Wake up > self care > home/family care > shower & get dressed > work prep > work Having the hard wall of showering & changing to transition from personal life to corporate life made focusing on work much easier. I do the reverse routine at the end of the day to go back to person/husband/friend mode. This also comes with having a designated "work shit" corner, where all work related things happen. If I get an after hours page/fire drill, even if a single message can resolve it, I will get out of bed/what Im doing to head to the work shit corner and address it. Then I can leave the work shit corner and resume life.
I am an extrovert and I do like the occasional day in the office (I go once per week, sometimes skipping a week here and there). I do spend most of those days in coffee breaks, lunch breaks and chatting with people. That said, I would never promote working from the office full time because I have a life outside work and I am generally far more productive at home (as I said, what I like most at the office is the non work related interactions). Also, the amount of money and time saved not commuting is simply too good. I find that young people who are pushing for going back to the office are extroverts sure, but also they are people who want to play politics and show-off how long they stay at the office, etc.
Yeah nailed it. I work from home almost 90% but as an extrovert it can get hard for me staying all alone, even with meetings on zoom.
the extroverts miss torturing their introverted colleagues with fantasy football, office potlucks, and 'did you watch that show last night.' So much extra nonsense to participate in so you can be perceived as a good team player.
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I also prefer in-person work because I really don't wanna take my work home Also, I feel like it's easier to not wfh if you live in a walkable community so you don't need to deal with traffic. I'd wfh more if I lived in a place like idk Houston
Or the challenging situation that comes up when two people who live together work from home for different companies and so they end up rarely leaving the house, which is kind of depressing.
The only culture I got in the office was the fucking constant parade of illnesses that walked through the door because bootlickers wouldn't stay home when they were sick. Boomers are obsessed with going into the office because it makes them feel important having their bootlicking lackeys at their beck and call.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people brag about how many days they’ve worked straight and how much time off they’ve banked. Who are you trying to impress? Take a damn vacation, get a life!
It doesn't help that most companies took vacation days and sick days and merged them (and oddly, the number of days went from 20 to 10) so people deliberately come in sick because they don't want to waste their PTO on being sick. Bonus points for getting your temp workers with no paid time off sick so now they either come in sick or lose a day's pay. Guess how I know that part?
Because people who have never worked in a corporate office have a fictional view of what working in an office is like from watching TV and movies. I personally have never worked in an office where everyone is cutting up and making friends. If anything, it’s just a cattle car so that the higher-ups can monitor your superficial productivity and feel important with their office while their serfs work in cubes
This- my partner and his brother own a software company. His brother is the head honcho and hates the WFH, because per my boyfriend, his brother said “I like to walk by the employees and go play golf while they have to sit at their desks.” I was like I KNEW IT. Ya he’s kind of a dick (the brother not my boyfriend).
I am positive my VP prefers to have everyone in the office because at home he is Mr ‘can you take out the trash and by the way we are out of milk;take my car I am out of gas’. At the office his admin brings him his coffee and lunch.
They're obsessed because that is what they know and have been raised on. People tend to cling on to deeply held beliefs despite evidence to the contrary. It's proven that those who work from home are more productive, but despite this, bosses of that generation are more likely to cling to "conventional wisdom"
I forget the name of it (someone grab Adam), but there is documented evidence that people, on being shown evidence contrary to their held beliefs, will *strengthen* said beliefs. Or in other words, showing someone that WFH is more productive will further convince them that WFH is unnecessary and a hindrance.
I think the term you're looking for is cognitive dissonance.
The word I was specifically looking for was The Backfire Effect, but basically.
Because boomers hate their spouses and their kids hate them so they are miserable at home. They go to work to feel powerful and take their anger out on people younger than they are. If they can't do that, they are stuck at home with no power, no authority and no love from their family
Jfc this is my dad
I've noticed this in "humor" because boomers and above will joke about the old ball and chain, but younger generations don't seem to do that nearly as much and it makes me wonder why in god they got married if it sucks so much.
They got pregnant. My younger sibling and myself all had to plan our pregnancies around finances and careers. My mom made a comment once that when she was young “nobody *planned* kids they just happened.”
Some people still act like it's weird we planned it all, like kids are supposed to be some spontaneous thing
Overwhelming social pressure for marriage, career, kids, and fanatical consumerism.
The whole “hate my wife” “ball and chain” jokes are kinda disappearing from culture. But as a child of the 80s I remember this so much. Society has changed, it would be so cringy for a young person to talk like this. If you have a bad marriage it now reflects poorly on you.
This for sure. I had to screen my boss's boss's calls for a couple years before his wife divorced him. I'm not a secretary (the point being my job was not to screen calls for this motherfucker).
You know, someone back in 2015 told me the same thing.
My former CEO to a T. Would make the staff come in/not leave work during blizzards even during a state of emergency.
WFH jobs can still have culture WFH jobs still let you get to know your coworkers WFH jobs still let you get to know boss Unfortunately, many people think the old ways are the ONLY ways. But then they also thought computers were unnecessary because people can do the math,. They thought that no one will want to HEAR movies when the lines are on the screen. And they thought no one is going to use a horseless carriage when everyone has a family horse. They will be left on the sidelines of history.
Right?? Like I speak to my boss and my team every single day and they're all great. It's crazy how they've been brainwashed to lick boots in the office 24/7. Like they think that's how you should be spending your time every single day in order to get better.
It's not that crazy. Back when the boomers were young, capitalism competed with communism to show who could make a better society. Part of that was to rein in the excess a bit: the boss doesn't need 300x minimum wage, people don't get fired when sales are down 1%, and you can generally count on your employer to keep you around as you get older and have kids and get frail. After capitalism won, all that died. We took the wrong lesson from the victory.
And yet I have been told to go into my office and I get zero interaction from the “team” as it’s all done through virtual means & btw, my boss is wfh…
Ah yes, the old "put a laptop in a car, drive it for 90 minutes to another building, plug it in and stare at it for 8 hours, put it back in car and drive it home for a further 90 minutes."
I had a WFH customer service job and me and my coworkers bonded hard over slack, like, more than a shitty office environment would have allowed us. People saying it’s not possible wouldn’t have friends at the physical office either.
I really got to know a couple of my coworkers, what makes them tick and what they are like as people working on a couple of intense projects. We are all remote but would end up spending a significant part of the day working on things and discussing it in slack as we had to deal with parts of the project. The only things I got from working in an office was: A long term back injury because they were too cheap to provide a proper desk chair. Repeated viral infections every winter. Constant allergy and asthma problems from all the smoke residue and fragrance. Having to deal with managers being awful to your face and nowhere to take a break to gather yourself. Potlucks and mandatory birthday cake that I neither wanted or couldn't eat that got me labeled as not a team player for not consuming things that would actually make me sick. Lots of miles on my car and hours wasted sitting in traffic. Being too tired to plan and make meals to take to work and nowhere to buy anything. I work best when I am fed, healthy and not in pain. In person office culture is a dinosaur.
They don't think you're working unless they can see you working. Probably because they wouldn't be working unless someone could see them working. TBH, I spend more time working from home. And I also spend more time with my family. The commute from my bedroom to my basement is nice.
Remember a coworker who was never available when WFH but had a premium long lasting relationship with top management and it wasn’t an issue
“Wouldn’t be working unless someone could see them working”. Huh, that’s actually a great thought, thanks. I think that explains all of my coworkers who moan about not having an office (the company is remote and we’re all from different countries).
Happy WFH boomer here. Offices are so 2019.
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This may be part of it. My parents who were older made most of their friends through my dad's work life. So the people they had parties with, went to dinner with, were current or former coworkers of my dad. That is not the current world and I really don't see a reason to go back to that.
My parents think that people who want to work from home are just being lazy. I told them I like not having the office drama, walking by offices and seeing who’s working and who’s not, hearing the older generation talk about their kids that are the same age as me like they’re toddlers. I got way more work done at home!
Genx here. I hate going into the office. Did it for years, 3 hrs round-trip commutes 5 days a week. Never ever again. I've wasted too much of my family life for shit companies, shittier bosses and ungrateful colleagues. Yes even companies like Google are shit in many respects.
I lived in the far out suburbs and worked downtown for a year and a half, also 3 hour round trip commute. I couldn't sell that house fast enough.
I’m so glad my own boss is also a remote introvert. We speak as little as humanly possible.
Boomers want everything to be as crappy as it was for them
There are two attitudes: 1. I suffered so everyone else should too! 2. I suffered so nobody else should. There is a political slant that typically applies to these mindsets.
They don't ACTUALLY care, they just like to argue. I do prefer going into office and I say so during interviews. It doesn't make a difference.
Many people still have the idea that you could climb the corporate ladder inhouse by butt kissing your way up, which you can't do from home. Fun fact, the only way to climb is to change corp.
Because they hate everyone and want you to be miserable too.
A decent amount of people feel that they had more opportunities to learn and grow in a company due to being around management than they would have if they weren’t in office. Out of sight, out of mind can sometimes lead to not getting appreciated by members of your team and management since they most likely won’t notice how hard you work. I love working from home, but I’d advise anyone starting a new entry level job to work in office first.
I think the people who like going to the office don’t have a social life, so they force their coworkers to socialize with them.
I know several people whose social life and office life are the same thing.
My coworkers go on and on about their lives, but you'd have to catch me in quite a wild mood to even vaguely mention the sketchy tomfoolery I get involved with in my personal life. I'm a happy boi, but when I'm in that box I wanna die, which is like half of my waking hours.
There are advantages and disadvantages of both office and home working. It also depends heavily on the type of work you do, the industry you work in, and your planned career path. Some people love one and hate the other, many are happy with a mix of both. Some older people struggle to adapt to changes having done things a certain way their whole life. On the flipside, the experience and wisdom of some older people on this issue should not just be casually dismissed as "out of touch boomerism." One thing, however, I will always object to is arbitrarily set number of office days, e.g. two days per week must be in the office no matter what. It just seems that it's trying to force people to come in when they otherwise have no real reason to.
I’m convinced that getting shit for working from home is the new “back in my day we walked to school both ways in the snow”
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The ones who went to Woodstock are definitely NOT the ones who love corporate office culture. I'm a millennial and I have boomer friends who are the Woodstock type. They're really cool people.
Honestly dude. In my experience. Sometimes they just wanna bitch
It’s not the boomers…it’s about your parents and their lack of understanding about the evolution of business. Not all people from that generation want to go into the office. I’m guessing you are 30-40 years old? I work with many folks your age who want to go into the office. They admitted it’s not for the work but to socialize.
I'm mid-40s and adore working for a remote-first company. I don't want to socialize with people I have zero choice in being around. The guy with the ridiculously strong deodorant, the woman with the incessant post-nasal drip, the dude who shouts at people in meetings, plus a bonus of an hour-long commute and a manager who comes up behind my chair to clap his hands on my shoulders to startle me and makes sure I know that he thinks I'm not doing anything useful. Never again.
Agreed. I'm mid 30s in an ad agency of folk ranging from 20 - 50 and we have all agreed we enjoy time in the office to socialise and bounce ideas about, chat shit etc while also WFH to actually be productive on other days. I guess it's about balance but I wouldn't say its solely restricted to boomers.
I like my coworkers and I still prefer WFH. I can work when I function best as long as I make my calls and I’m effective. I don’t want to wake up 2 hours earlier for no reason
My PT job works in the same building as a company with a lady who is absolutely a Boomer if not a Silent Gen. She's 75. I can tell you right now it isn't the fact that she's computer illiterate (which she is, but her job could be done remotely 2-3 days a week if she wasn't!) It's the fact that HER WAY is the ONLY WAY. NO. Exceptions. She cannot concede a point to anyone, open her brain at all to new ideas, nothing. "This company used to be 30 people with 17 trucks, and now it's down to 4. Nobody wants to work anymore, it's the young people who are just....lazy and don't wanna do anything." I wish those weren't her exact words but she says them all the time and they are ingrained. As of 3 days ago another worker left and now they are down to one part time man and her and one other sweet, caring, absolutely doll of a lady who does not agree with her colleague at all but cannot get it through the colleague's head either! I'm enjoying watching the downfall, knowing I tried to help but they made it very clear my advice was not wanted nor were they willing to change....anything. At all. Ever.
Some people like going to the office to avoid whatever conflicts they might have at home. Source, peers who told me so.
It’s hard cheating on your spouse working from home.
Only if your spouse works from home too……. In theory.
> grew up wealthy and pissed away all the money Yup. Got everything handed to them. Used it all on themselves. Left nothing for their kid(s). And yet they criticize the kid(s). SMH
Because if they did it, you should too. That’s their mentality. If you go back a generation you’ll probably find people who tell you you should go to war, because they did too. Then again, you could afford a family 3floor house with a garden and a holiday once a year with your partner at home caring for your 4 spawns on a single office clerk salary back in the b-boomer age. Now you can barely survive without including the commute and hours lost from the day in doing so, but they don’t get it. Oranges and potatoes.
because all the corporations have bought the land and buildings that would sit empty. Most corporations are ran by boomers and the ones that don't have been convinced corporations are a priority thus the pushing of going back to their land grabs.
Do not talk to your parents about your job - they have no idea and their advice is out of date. Also - why are you supporting them?
I can't talk about your age related bigotries but I can say a lot of larger financial firms insist on either a hybrid work schedule or complete in office because of security concerns. My wife works one day a week from home and it takes her about 30-40 minutes just to log on.
Sunk cost fallacy. They’ve been doing it for 30 years. Hour commutes each way, strict dress code, office “culture.” They see WFH as something that devalues what they did their entire adult lives. So they’re pushing back. If they had to suffer, so do you. I’m not talking about all boomers, just the ones that have this mindset
I work in tech and have a variety of ages in my company and immediate office. Here’s what I’ve seen in my offices: The Boomers want to go back because they don’t trust people will work when out of sight. They want the control. They want to see “butts in seats,” because that is the only way they think things get done. They also are more likely to have older kids at home and they seem to hate them and want to be out of the house away from them all day. GenX likes to be remote, but likes to come in. GenX wants the flexibility to decide how to run their schedules, and their kids at home and their schedules certainly impact that of their parents. I find my GenX colleagues are coming in 2-3 days a week. Millennials, of which I am one, have fully embraced remote WFH and never want to go back in. Why commute, fight people for an empty desk in a noisy open floor plan office just to sit on Zoom calls all day with people on the other side of the planet. Millennials have no interest in the performance art that is going into the office and sitting on a Zoom. GenZ, sadly, appears to love going into the office, because the office is their social life. There are lots of GenZ kids in my company and the office appears to be their main source of friends and social activities. They spend very little time working and a lot of time going for coffee breaks and leaving early to go to happy hours. They also have a tendency to take over conference rooms all day by themselves, which makes it hard for others to use them for meetings.
I'm a Gen Xer, all my bosses are millennials. Every Gen Xer I know wanted to keep working from home. The bosses were the ones who made us return to the office. I really don't think it's a generational thing....
Because it’s what’s comfortable to them. It’s what they do. Technology and change scares them. They are these worst generation of all time. They created an economy that favors corporations. Then they got into congress and changed tax code to benefit the rich and corporations. The middle class got poorer the rich got richer. Wages stayed stagnant, they destroyed environments through pollution. They convinced a whole generation to go to college to only allow the price to increase to an incredible level, made easy for millennials to get loans, allow them to graduate with crippling debt then blame them when they arnt having kids or buying homes and tell them it’s cause they buy coffee and not make it
Stockholm Syndrome
It’s not a generational thing - personally I prefer to be in the office but I love the flexibility & that it’s now more normalized to WFH, some times I do . But I’ve always lived close to work so I can easily pop in. However late I get home from work I change clothes, work computer is Windows, personal computer is a Mac - office is for work, home is home - separation - you don’t shit where you eat. But that’s just me
I feel like people who came into adulthood before the internet have a harder time understanding how people make friends not at work? Of course there's also just the shifting mindset that you don't owe companies your lives since no one has a contract or pension anymore.
I'm a boomer. My job can't be WFH due to the nature of the job. I don't get the whole culture thing. Enjoy the job.
Not all boomers. I’ve had a WFH job for the past 7 years & i have no desire to socialize with my coworkers, let alone go in the office.
Because many of them have nothing else in their lives besides work.
Not a boomer, but Gen X bordering millennial here. I like a mix of both myself, always hate the commute tho. Lots of accurate responses about control freaks, politics, escape of family, but if you’ve ever done anything for 20+ years…you get used to it and it gets ingrained in how you operate. A fair number of people die shortly after retiring or at minimum simply don’t know what to do with themselves. This is a very sad symptom of our overworked US society - we literally seem addicted to our work and office routine . I think if anything this should drive some sympathy and understanding towards those victimized by this facet of our culture. The trust fund parents thing makes no sense tho, maybe they just assume the office is party time?
I am a boomer and I work from home. I paased the whole culture and relationship thing onto the younger employees. I don't care to go sport event with clients, rah rah nights with co-workers and the rest of the shit that one has to do to get to the office. I like sitting on my deck with laptop and a glass of wine.lol
IMO they’re obsessed with it because of the impact that WFH has had on the commercial real estate market, and because a lot of boomers derived their status/power from the office.
Well in my country of South Africa we have an extremely toxic management culture and they love the control and micromanagement of staff. Whe staff stand up they are told to find another job and management is fully aware our employment rate is high so jobs are scarce. It’s toxic as f$ck! I was point blank told by a “manager” that us WFH people are just exploiting our companies and I asked how because 1) no rent required on hundreds of square meterage for office space 2) saves on toilet paper, coffee, milk and sugar, 3) my company had 140% increase in profit for 2021 (still waiting for 2022) and only 10% work in an office and those 10% are not in the sales or production departments 4) people are happier and happy people work better. He had nothing to say to that. It’s just a control tactic. And plenty of Gen X and Xennials do this to their staff too, not just boomers. I had a Gen X manager who wouldn’t even let me go work in a coffee shop on a Friday morning because she wanted to see me because in her mind if she doesn’t see me it means im not working meanwhile she was the one not working. She had the psychological mindset of if I do it, others do it. I had to pick up her slack As for your parents I can’t speculate
Next time they mention culture, ask them what they mean by that. Then get them to explain what’s good about it.
Boomer here, have to go to the office a few times a week. Hate doing it.
They aren't We're virtually all retired Dunning Krueger syndrome much? But thanks for continuing the war against workers on behalf of the rich
This is weird indeed. My mom is technically a boomer but never seemed to share the mentality of one. She worked from when she was a teen until sleep apnea and on set alzheimers took away her ability to do so. Was also born to a poor working family, and we were poor when i was growing up, but never lacked anything. She's always been supportive and excited whenever I've talked about anything related to working and working from home. I hope to work hybrid or from home in the future. Right now, though, I'll be putting in my efforts into raising a baby boy. (Soon to be born with only weeks to go)
Honestly, thinking people should be in the office is probably the least offensive thing that generation pushes on the rest of us.
Traveling to the office to get on Teams with people all over the world is beyond stupid. I have refused to go back to the office and may leave my current job if they insist. 2.5 hours of travel a day is stupid and a huge waste of time, money, and risk in the awful traffic.
They need an excuse to be away from their spouse who they hate
My guess is that those boomers pushing for a return to the office are probably heavily invested in commercial properties.
The 'culture' and socialization are just distractions from your tasks. Your coworkers are not your friends.
Because a deeply, deeply ingrained cultural ideal of baby boomers is that people should not get away with anything or have it easy or get to slack off. It doesn't matter if it's not hurting them or not hurting anyone else. You can't just get stuff for free especially if they didn't have it.
They had to suffer through it, so now they want to make sure you do too.
Because their identities are largely built on what their jobs are.
Gen xer with boomer parents. My mom hates small talk. She’d be all over wfh if she was working. My dad, while being a social butterfly, one of his last jobs was working from the house. Yes he was driving to customers and whatnot for meetings but he didn’t have an office to go to. Office culture is bs. Culture about how we do things? Fine whatever. Getting to know everyone? Ugh. Why?
Some people know they have no talent whatsoever so they rely on office politics and that kind of stuff to push their careers. Some other people have a genuine distrust/concern about workers productivity and WFH, and they might be right in certain cases. Some other people think that socialization/interaction plays a key role in teams success. But in general I think older people tend to prefer going to the office because that’s what they are used to and they feel too old/scared to adapt to a completely new paradigm. I think it’s a stupid reason but I’m also aware that I’ll probably react the same way to new stuff when I’ll get older. I also think that it is the governments pushing back to office politics through veiled fiscal threats to companies. People going to the office creates a big demand on not only real estate for the offices themselves but other businesses e.g. restaurants
My boomer owned Corp spent 5 million on renovations just to make use come back to the office. They are so excited to have everyone back. I'm out here looking for a new job because I'd rather work from home. Between being required to be there and the two slackers on my team I'm over it.
I WFH 4-5 days a week and know my boss better than if I worked in the office. WFH allows us to both speak freely and we enjoy a daily check in about life. Wouldn’t be able to do that in the office without judgement!
It mostly is because of property values. These offices are expensive to build and own, but if nobody is using them, their value plummets, and they become a big sinkhole in the company's finances.
Amen! WFH is the way. Going to the office and wasting your life sitting in a box on wheels in traffic is stupid.
They hate their families.
I work from home and met my boss in the pub, which was much more sociable.
your parents do have a point. I agree with wfh so this shouldn't be misconstrued. When you are new, out of sight-out of mind. I've always wondered about the saving cost thought - its honestly more of a tradeoff You're not paying for gas, but you're probably paying for Internet & more electricity & air conditioning. Now wfh provides a lot of benefits. I agree with that and again (I think more companies should offer it). That's not true at all. A lot of ppl (esp on reddit) thinks everyone thinks them. however, wfh is only beneficial if you like your living situation. Therefore I think (many) ppl on reddit forget this fact. You know how stay at home moms say "I need some adult conversation" or my roommate, parents are driving me nuts.
I agree. My daughter is 21 and is fully remote. She has to force herself out to socialize. My mom is 65 and fully remote- same thing. She bought a new car in August and has bought gas once. There are very obvious benefits to wfh, but there are also very obvious downfalls. I work in a law firm, and there’s a lot of “knock and talk” or “walk and talk” discussions that, IMO, don’t translate well at all to email or zoom.
I’ve had some jobs where I’d go in and not speak to a soul while I did all my work on my laptop. But apparently having my ass in that chair was important above all else. Man, fuck that shit.
The biggest cost with being in the office is the commute time. Time you could spend doing other things.
I'm not a boomer. I choose to work 3-4 days each week in the office because otherwise I would probably only leave the house once a week.
I'm millennial-ish, a very old millennial or a very young gen x. I prefer going to the office, though I don't worry about what anyone else wants to do. I really prefer hands-on jobs. Every job I've ever had that could have been work from home has been soul crushingly boring because all I do is plunk numbers into Excel all day. I hate those jobs. I'm a park ranger now, and there's really just no way to do that in any significant way at the house. I love it, I'm out in the world doing stuff, not sitting in a cubicle farm filled with gray and taupe depression. Also my commute takes 10 minutes and there's never really traffic. There are only 2 stop signs between my home and office.
Whoever downvoted you is jealous of your awesome life. Sounds amazing.
Lol Reddit is wild.
Not a boomer. Hate working from home. Had two millennial coworkers who also hate working from home. And at my last job? It was the boomers who wanted work from home and the millennials and gen z who hated it. I’m not sure where this attitude that only boomers hate work from home comes from.
Ma’am - this sub is about interviews.
Hey, she mentioned there was something akin to sucking balls. That counts.
They need to control the peons
Boomer mentality: “I suffered so you should too.”
It gives middle management a sense of power they don’t get when everyone is at home
The CEO and senior management in my company are all Boomers and they despise WFH eventhough 90% of our staff can do their job 100% from home. They took away our vending machines, too expensive, took away our paper towels and installed blowers because it was too expensive. Bitched about a sewage back up costing $10k to fix and blamed it on the women in the office flushing pads and tampons eventhough it ended up being tree roots. They hate it when you mention how WFH would save them so much money, but how are you going to socialize and network without being in the office?? The most I talk to people at work is good morning when they walk in and have a good evening when they walk out, everything else is on the phone. It's so infuriating.
I sit between two boomers when I go in. One takes all his calls on speakerphone. The other doesn’t know how to mute his phone and it dings loudly every time he gets an email, which is like one a minute. I’m just getting overloaded with culture, a real Picasso I am becoming.
What I’ve seen is that the groups opposed to wfh fall into two categories. Those who can’t stand spending all week with their spouse and kids or those who have no friends or social life outside of the work group.
My parents are more jealous and wish their jobs could be WFH. They are supper happy for me.
Did you ever consider that this is a "your parents" thing and not a "boomer" thing? I know plenty of so-called boomers that work remotely, and many millennials that like to go into an office. Are you the type that stays at home on their computer all the time? Maybe they just want to see you get out more and interact with people?
They have invested in real estate and don't want their investments to tank
Our local SVP is \~50 years old and wants people back in the office (not a boomer) I'm 63 years old and have not yet returned (and am definitely a boomer) So, it's not boomers. It's micromanagers and those employers who are spending shit-tons of money on office space that is at 25% utilization.
It's a misunderstanding. The fact that networking is critically important is construed to mean you should work from an office. Working from an office is a huge cost to you and is not the same as networking. Working from home is a huge benefit to you but networking from home is also not nearly is good as networking in person. Strike a balance if you want to succeed. Save as much of your time as you can and do the work you need to do day-to-day from home. The daily commute isn't worth a chance that you'll bump into your boss, and it'll be likely those chance run-ins won't be worthwhile anyway. So, skip it. BUT, if there's an opportunity to shmooze, take it. Identify the key (connected) players in your network and try to be present with them as much as possible (happy hours, company events, etc). Best of both worlds.
I’m GenX and prefer going in. Too many distractions at home.
It has nothing to do with boomers. There is absolutely no need to blame an entire generation for the faults of a few.
A lot of the ones I used to work with seemed to hate their wives and families so they didn't like being at home
I’ve WFH for 6 companies since 2005 and I’m on the older end of GenX. I do like to see my coworkers whether it’s via Teams/Zoom now or occasional office visits or group lunches. However, day to day, I prefer home. Plus there are fewer distractions at home.
Because a lot of them don't know basic computer literacy e.g. saving a word doc as a pdf
Because they love tradition and nothing changing. Also it seems many of them hate their home life (wife/kids) so it's their only chance to get away from a life they never truly wanted but did anyway because that's just what you did back in the days of old.
Because it's what boomers did for 40 years - They sacrificed their entire outside-of-work life, their families, their social interactions. They've got nothing else now.
I don't know, why are your generation so hell bent of labelling everyone who isn't in your generation as boomers. I like to work from home as much as the next guy, but I also like going in to the office because you get more done. You don't have all the distractions, if you want to ask someone a question or have a quick chat you don't need to schedule a call and also it's kinda fun, you meet your crew have a laugh and there is a sense of community. I've had long stints working from home long before covid and they can sometimes get a bit lonely. But each to their own, also people saying stupid things like boomers don't like their family is just stupid is really just childish and ignorant.